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Despite facing plenty of controversy over its proposed Terms of
Service changes, Instagram
remains a hot site for both users and the marketers who want to
capitalize on its popularity. If you've never used it before,
Instagram is one part Flickr and one part Twitter: essentially a
community in which users take and share photos with one another.

From a marketing
perspective, the community's enthusiastic fan base and
built-in social aspects make it an ideal place to connect with
potential customers and build brand recognition. Here's how your
business can take advantage of Instagram's potential:

Plan your content strategy.
Before you post your first image to Instagram, plan out a content
strategy for the types of images you'll share and how these
graphics communicate your brand's message. Although plenty of
people use Instagram for personal purposes -- posting everything
from pictures of their lunches to their pets -- businesses must
be more strategic.

To start, identify potential followers by seeing who's following
your competitors on the site. Then, take a look at the images
they're liking and sharing and consider their preferences when
defining your own content strategy. That way, you should ensure
that any image you post to the site will appeal to your new
followers.

As you go through this process, continually ask yourself the
following questions to help guide the content curation process:

What types of content do my potential followers seem to
prefer?

What types of content will most likely encourage these
Instagram users to engage with my brand?

Post engaging images.
Once you have a feel for the types of content you plan to share
on Instagram, you'll find that it's worth brushing up on your
photography skills. Users on the site can be extremely picky
about the images they "like."

If your photos tend to have red eyes and chopped off heads,
either take a class on photo composition or outsource picture
taking to more qualified photographers. Working with local art
school students, for example, is one way to capture aesthetically
pleasing images at a lower cost than hiring professional
photographers.

In addition, be aware that Instagram users are accustomed to
seeing images that have been enhanced using either the site's
built-in photo filters or other manually produced effects. Again,
if you don't yet know how to apply filters to your images, you
can either read more about using them or outsource it
to photo editors using sites like Fiverr or Elance.

Use brand-specific and generic hashtags on all your
images.
As on Twitter, Instagram users search by hashtags to find
interesting new content or to follow subjects they're interested
in. As a result, it's important that you use both brand-specific
and generic hashtags on all the images you upload to the site.

Brand-specific hashtags are those that you create based on
your company's name, products, services or other defining
features. For example, if your company runs an industry
conference, using hashtags like #companyname and #our2013event
can help Instagram users engage with more of your business's
content.

At the same time, generic hashtags -- formatted like
#ourindustry or #producttype -- can help your company's Instagram
account gain traction among people who aren't yet familiar with
your brand but use the site to seek information on topics that
interest them.

Engage viewers by using geolocation and gamification
tools.
Finally, get your brand noticed on Instagram by making
interacting with your company's content fun. Ways you can do
this:

Use Instagram's geolocation feature to tie your images to
specific places and provide potential followers with another
point of engagement. Turning on this feature -- referred to as
" Photo Map " -- helps alert users in your
area to your presence and can be used as a jumping off
point for connecting with new followers.

Turn your activity into a game. On Instagram, you can do much
more than just upload a few images and wait for people to follow
your brand. You can run contests that encourage followers to
submit their own pictures under your company's hashtags, create
caption contests, or upload "mystery photos" that encourage users
to solve puzzles while learning more about your company.

Certainly, Instagram marketing isn't the right fit for every
company. That's why it's important to confirm that your target
audience is actually using the site before engaging in the
techniques described above. If you do find clear evidence that
your user base is active on Instagram, make it a priority to use
these techniques to take advantage of this promising new
marketing channel.